Bike build for a ten year old. Realistic?
Discussion
Afternoon all,
I'm planning on getting my son a new bike for his tenth birthday in September.
Budget is around £400, as that's what his older sister's Islabike was, but having built up a hardtail for myself with a second hand frame and parts stripped off my old full susser, I was thinking it might be more fun for him to do a bike build project getting used bits off the likes of eBay and Pink Bike.
Question is, will this be feasible, starting with an I likely to find small enough frames to choose from? Looking on eBay, there's metric, imperial and t-shirt sizes, so I'm not sure how to start on that.
I'm assuming that going second hand should help me get the components light enough for him now, but give him some space to grow through raising the saddle and fitting longer stems.
I'm planning on getting my son a new bike for his tenth birthday in September.
Budget is around £400, as that's what his older sister's Islabike was, but having built up a hardtail for myself with a second hand frame and parts stripped off my old full susser, I was thinking it might be more fun for him to do a bike build project getting used bits off the likes of eBay and Pink Bike.
Question is, will this be feasible, starting with an I likely to find small enough frames to choose from? Looking on eBay, there's metric, imperial and t-shirt sizes, so I'm not sure how to start on that.
I'm assuming that going second hand should help me get the components light enough for him now, but give him some space to grow through raising the saddle and fitting longer stems.
I did the same thing for my daughter for her 10th birthday.
Got a bargain small MTB frame (<£2) and some bargain wheels (again <£2) from Ebay. Got the frame powder coated in a nice girly pink/purple colour for £40 locally.
shifters, mechs and saddle from the parts bin. Bars, stem, cables, cranks, BB etc all from various sites depending what was on offer.
All in I recon it cost about £200 for a cracking bike.
Got a bargain small MTB frame (<£2) and some bargain wheels (again <£2) from Ebay. Got the frame powder coated in a nice girly pink/purple colour for £40 locally.
shifters, mechs and saddle from the parts bin. Bars, stem, cables, cranks, BB etc all from various sites depending what was on offer.
All in I recon it cost about £200 for a cracking bike.
Yep, a '92 GT Timberline.
The chain was new, not sure why it looks so crap in the pictures.
Just doing some adding up in my head of what I remember having to buy (it was a couple of years ago now) and it was actually closer to £250-280 all in. Still a lot better than anything you can buy new for that price.
The chain was new, not sure why it looks so crap in the pictures.
Just doing some adding up in my head of what I remember having to buy (it was a couple of years ago now) and it was actually closer to £250-280 all in. Still a lot better than anything you can buy new for that price.
If you can do it, then why not?
I didn't have a new bike until I had a Saturday job and saved up for one myself. But my Dad was a mechanic and used to build me stuff from the ground up.
I was always happywith the results.
Wish someone had taken pictures now, but my favourite was a Grifter frame that he turned into a BMX for me. Resprayed it himself (copper/bronze - it was the 70's after all) and best of all, got rid of the deadly Sturmey Archer gears - so no more slipping into neutral accidentally and banging my tabs on the cross bar.
I didn't have a new bike until I had a Saturday job and saved up for one myself. But my Dad was a mechanic and used to build me stuff from the ground up.
I was always happywith the results.
Wish someone had taken pictures now, but my favourite was a Grifter frame that he turned into a BMX for me. Resprayed it himself (copper/bronze - it was the 70's after all) and best of all, got rid of the deadly Sturmey Archer gears - so no more slipping into neutral accidentally and banging my tabs on the cross bar.
Kell said:
If you can do it, then why not?
I didn't have a new bike until I had a Saturday job and saved up for one myself. But my Dad was a mechanic and used to build me stuff from the ground up.
I was always happywith the results.
Wish someone had taken pictures now, but my favourite was a Grifter frame that he turned into a BMX for me. Resprayed it himself (copper/bronze - it was the 70's after all) and best of all, got rid of the deadly Sturmey Archer gears - so no more slipping into neutral accidentally and banging my tabs on the cross bar.
I was the same, never had a new bike until I was an adult. I didn't have a new bike until I had a Saturday job and saved up for one myself. But my Dad was a mechanic and used to build me stuff from the ground up.
I was always happywith the results.
Wish someone had taken pictures now, but my favourite was a Grifter frame that he turned into a BMX for me. Resprayed it himself (copper/bronze - it was the 70's after all) and best of all, got rid of the deadly Sturmey Archer gears - so no more slipping into neutral accidentally and banging my tabs on the cross bar.
Dad would build them with me as oppo learning as we did it, I even had one bike sprayed at the same time he was paining the Austin Maxi
Even my paper round money was used to buy a nicer second hand bike back in the day.
Nice HT or rigid 14" inbred frame here £80
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-14-on-o...
Cranks will be the biggest mare to sort I think. You want 150mm or under ideally. Inbreds use a BSA std BB thread which should help. Go 1x for weight and simplicity.
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-14-on-o...
Cranks will be the biggest mare to sort I think. You want 150mm or under ideally. Inbreds use a BSA std BB thread which should help. Go 1x for weight and simplicity.
richardxjr said:
Nice HT or rigid 14" inbred frame here £80
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-14-on-o...
Cranks will be the biggest mare to sort I think. You want 150mm or under ideally. Inbreds use a BSA std BB thread which should help. Go 1x for weight and simplicity.
Ooh! I like the look of that. Time to check if the intended recipient likes it...http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-14-on-o...
Cranks will be the biggest mare to sort I think. You want 150mm or under ideally. Inbreds use a BSA std BB thread which should help. Go 1x for weight and simplicity.
Straight steerer 1.1/8" for easily found forks
Matching £50 https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/FOOOCR26DO/on-one-cr...
BR-M335 Brakes are good, cheap, easy reach adjust.
Used 26" wheelsets often with decent tyres & rotors go for peanuts now.
Have fun
Matching £50 https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/FOOOCR26DO/on-one-cr...
BR-M335 Brakes are good, cheap, easy reach adjust.
Used 26" wheelsets often with decent tyres & rotors go for peanuts now.
Have fun
Well, the build is now complete, and I've got one happy 9yr old. He's not actually ten until September, but it seemed silly not to let him make use of the bike over the summer. 
Here it is....
The only bits that were actually new were the cassette, chain ring, chain, front rotor, grips, headset and seat collar. Everything else was second hand off Pinkbike and eBay or the byproduct of upgrades to my own hardtail.
I stayed pretty much to the £400 budget - certainly under £450 - and I've yet to figure out what it would've cost to build with new parts, but the frame and the Hope hubs along would've pretty much blown the entire budget!
Here it is....
The only bits that were actually new were the cassette, chain ring, chain, front rotor, grips, headset and seat collar. Everything else was second hand off Pinkbike and eBay or the byproduct of upgrades to my own hardtail.
I stayed pretty much to the £400 budget - certainly under £450 - and I've yet to figure out what it would've cost to build with new parts, but the frame and the Hope hubs along would've pretty much blown the entire budget!
dontfollowme said:
Looks great! What is the new trend of having a single chain ring about? How do you turn the wheels on a steep descent?
For adults, it's less weight and less to go wrong. For kids, there's the added benefit of it making the gears much easier to understand.As for turning the wheels on a steep descent, I reckon gravity can take care of that!
On a steep ascent, however, just take a look at the size of the big ring on the back! Back in the days of 7 or 8 speed cassettes, you needed multiple rings in the front to give you a sufficient range of gears to cope with getting up hills but still being able to move at a decent rate of knots on the flat.
Older cassettes were generally limited to 12 teeth on the smallest cog, whereas now you can have 11, and whilst you could have a huge big cog on the back, the small number of cogs on the cassette would've meant huge jumps in ratios between them. With a 10 or 11 speed cassette and with more recent hub technology, you can now have a wide range of speeds from a single cassette, which is what you see here.
As mini Kermit gets older, not only can I sell the frame (although no need for a few years yet!) and move the components to a new one, I can also just fit a larger chain ring on the front to give faster gearing as he develops the muscles to use it.
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